"I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag. This is a blog about my life as an au pair, my travels, and occasionally other thoughts thrown in… oh, yeah, I also take my Aggies EVERYWHERE :) Enjoy!!

This past weekend was the 20th anniversary of the Armageddon Expo in Auckland. I, of course, had to go! Booked my tickets, borrowed the car, drove 7 hours to couch-surf with one of the presenters. Zero trouble until I actually got into Auckland. Y’all remember I don’t do well driving in cities?? Yeah, well, still don’t. Ridiculously hard for me, haha.

Did the normal morning routine and got the kids off to school and took off north a couple of hours later. I hadn’t intended to go to the expo Friday night, but ended up going anyway. Learned my way there, got my photo/autograph tokens early before the massive rush on Saturday morning. Also bought myself a new shirt to wear the next day… and one for Kate as her comic con present.

How do you get a good parking spot for a con that starts at 10am? You get there at 8:30am and wait. Yup, that’s what I did, haha. The first panel I wanted to see didn’t start until noon so that means wandering around exploring more and looking for friends. I found a few and wandered some more.

First things first on the second day of Armageddon is get your picture taken with Natalia Tena. Tonks from Harry Potter!! and also Game of Thrones. She’s so skinny!! I thought I would break her!! But she’s so lovely 🙂

Waited for the first 10 minutes of the Arrow panel to see Michael Rowe, Manu Bennett, and Sean Maher… then they announced a special Skype in which turned out to be Paul Blackthorne.

And of course right over to the picture booths for my photo with Casper and Dina!! We could hear Casper out over the rest of the crowd. That man is a literal 5 year old. He’s hilarious!

Casper and Dina from one of my favorite movies – Starship Troopers!!

Then straight over to the next booth for a photo with Manu Bennett (remind me, I’ll tell you a funny story about when I met him during signings).

Manu

From Manu’s picture session to getting autographs and I was the first one in line for Dina and then she handed me straight over to Casper (sorry ppl in Casper’s line!!)

Natalia’s autograph on the picture and a few others like the one I picked up for the kids:

I think she was surprised because outside of mentioning that the kids loved her as Tonks, I didn’t really mention Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. I love her music with Molotov Jukebox and her movie “10,000km” was so good. She jerked her head up right after I said “btw I loved 10,000km” and she “oh hey thank you thank you thank you!!” Really surprised expression on her face, haha.

Basically most of Saturday was me rushing around the signing/photo hall trying to get in all the photos and signings that I could. Sunday was the day that had most of the panels I really wanted to see. My way of time management, lol. Not very good, is it?

Do you ever just sit and think “how would I react if I met a celeb that I really love and admire”? Well, apparently it’s something like this

Gathered my pictures to be signed, jumped in Maggie Roswell‘s line for a quick chat and she remembered me from our chats on Twitter 🙂 She’s the voice of several characters on The Simpsons.

Hopped it back over to Manu with my photo for him to sign. Ok, so here’s the story I know you probably forgot about. Seems I panicked when I got to the front of the line and since I was one of the last ones in line, I had a bit of extra time to speak with him. I haven’t seen much Arrow, only maybe half an episode. I’ve seen Spartacus and really liked it. Now he plays Crixus in that show, but Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in Arrow. Who else does he play, but we don’t really see much of him? Azog the Defiler. Yup, the white orc from The Hobbit movies.

Manu: (full laughing now) “Well, alright then. How about a cuddle from Azog?”

Me: “haha okay” (and I’m freaking out internally).

And that’s a bit of how I freaked out in front of Manu Bennett and then felt horrified later. Ryan, Chelsea, and I proceeded to laugh about it the entire weekend. Like laughing till we’re crying. I still feel bad about that, haha.

I was also one of the last ones in the line for Sean Maher and got a chance to speak to him a bit as well. Dude is even more amazing up close (don’t judge me, I don’t care if the man is gay, married, and has kids – doesn’t matter to me). I love him!! I got a few autographs for friends and then my large photo signed. That man is a gem and I had to get away fast before I was back to being Sheldon with his paper bag. This is exactly how I was the entire weekend anytime he was in the same room as me. Yes, I know he’s just a normal person. Yes, I have issues. No, I don’t need you to tell me that because not only do I already know, but my friends see to it that I remember it all the time, lol. His panel the next day, I recorded nearly all of it and completely forgot every single question I had for him. I mean, seriously… ugh 😦

I guess I should leave you at the end of day 1 and 2 of Armageddon. “Would you like to know more?”